Jury sees Peterson police interview

By Brian Skoloff, Associated Press | June 23, 2004

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Scott Peterson was ''calm, cool, relaxed" after his wife was reported missing on Dec. 24, 2002, according to the first detective called to the couple's home for a ''suspicious missing person" report.

Detective Allen Brocchini testified yesterday that Peterson did not appear distraught that his wife, Laci, was nowhere to be found.

Also yesterday, jurors heard for the first time Scott Peterson's own account of what he did that Christmas Eve day, as prosecutors played a videotaped police interview at his trial that had been made Dec. 25.

Appearing tired but calm, Peterson recounted to Brocchini what happened after he left home for a fishing trip.

The interview had the tone of an interrogation, and climaxed with police testing his hands for gun powder residue.

Prosecutors allege that Peterson, 31, murdered his pregnant wife in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then used the fishing story as a coverup to hide that he had dumped her body into San Francisco Bay.

The defense argues that investigators focused on Peterson too quickly to the detriment of other leads. They have asserted that someone else abducted Laci Peterson while she walked their dog.

Brocchini was the first detective at the home, summoned after several officers who had spoken briefly with Peterson deemed his story ''suspicious" and requested an investigator.

Peterson told the investigator that he fetched the boat from his warehouse in Modesto where he also e-mailed his boss, then drove to the bay.

After launching from a marina in Berkeley, he gave up after about 90 minutes. He then drove back, stopping for gas and dropping off the boat before returning to an empty home, he said.

Once back, according to the taped interview, he threw the jeans and T-shirt he was wearing into the washing machine, ate some pizza, and jumped in the shower.

After the shower, he checked phone messages and then called Laci's parents, who said they hadn't heard from her.